As the population increases, and correspondingly, the amount of waste material produced by people in everyday usage increases, the problem of dealing with waste materials becomes more and more important. As a result, there is an ever increasingly focus on efficient waste management processes including the recycling of used materials. Among the most commonly encountered recyclables are plastic and aluminum beverage containers and similar products.
Many processes and programs are in place to allow persons to recycle such materials on a personal residential basis. Common practices include the collection of waste materials in small personal recycling bins for subsequent collection and processing. However, the amount of materials which are recycled is often limited due to the amount of space available for the collection and disposal of these recyclable materials. Many common recycling bins and the like are small and very limited as to the amount of materials which they can contain. As a result, many recyclable materials are often disposed of into trash receptacles rather than being processed through available recycling channels, increasing the amount of waste material in landfills and limiting the reuse of such resources.
Various attempts have been made to provide for the compaction of recyclable materials. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,978, issued in the name of Flick, describes a beverage can folder which provides mechanical assistance to a user in crushing common aluminum beverage cans with their foot.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,397, issued in the name of Modes, describes a can flattening device. The Modes device is particularly suited for individually flattening cylindrical containers prior to disposal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,923, issued in the name of Villiger, describes an apparatus for collapsing containers. The Villiger apparatus provides a “U”-shaped support which contains a container for subsequent pivoting and crushing.
Additionally, ornamental designs for can crushing devices exist, particularly U.S. Pat. Nos. D 268,761 and D 323,171. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are large and unwieldy, making them aesthetically unpleasing and difficult to store or place. Also, many such devices are complicated, reducing their utility in terms of the amount of time required to compact a plurality of objects. Furthermore, many such devices are not adapted to receive a wide range of recyclable objects. In addition, many such devices are not easily operable by a single user, especially one of low physical strength. Accordingly, there exists a need for a container crushing device without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.